to become roused from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often fol. by up).
2.
to become roused from a tranquil or inactive state; awaken; waken: to wake from one's daydreams.
3.
to become cognizant or aware of something; awaken; waken: to wake to the true situation.
4.
to be or continue to be awake: Whether I wake or sleep, I think of you.
5.
to remain awake for some purpose, duty, etc.: I will wake until you return.
6.
to hold a wake over a corpse.
7.
to keep watch or vigil.
–verb (used with object)
8.
to rouse from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often fol. by up): Don't wake me for breakfast. Wake me up at six o'clock.
9.
to rouse from lethargy, apathy, ignorance, etc. (often fol. by up): The tragedy woke us up to the need for safety precautions.
10.
to hold a wake for or over (a dead person).
11.
to keep watch or vigil over.
–noun
12.
a watching, or a watch kept, esp. for some solemn or ceremonial purpose.
13.
a watch or vigil by the body of a dead person before burial, sometimes accompanied by feasting or merrymaking.
14.
a local annual festival in England, formerly held in honor of the patron saint or on the anniversary of the dedication of a church but now usually having little or no religious significance.
15.
the state of being awake: between sleep and wake.
[Origin: bef. 900; (v.) in sense “to become awake” continuing ME waken, OE *wacan (found only in past tense wōc and the compounds onwacan, āwacan to become awake; see awake(v.)); in sense “to be awake” continuing ME waken, OE wacian (c. OFris wakia, OS wakōn, ON vaka, Goth wakan); in sense “to rouse from sleep” continuing ME waken, r. ME wecchen, OE weccan, prob. altered by assoc. with the other senses and with the k of ON vaka; (n.) ME: state of wakefulness, vigil (late ME: vigil over a dead body), prob. continuing OE *wacu (found only in nihtwacu night-watch); all ult. < Gmc *wak- be lively; akin to watch, vegetable, vigil]
wake 1Audio Help (wāk) Pronunciation Key
v.
woke (wōk) or waked (wākt), waked or wok·en (wō'kən), wak·ing, wakes
v.
intr.
To cease to sleep; become awake: overslept and woke late.
To stay awake: Bears wake for spring, summer, and fall and hibernate for the winter.
To be brought into a state of awareness or alertness: suddenly woke to the danger we were in.
To keep watch or guard, especially over a corpse.
v.
tr.
To rouse from sleep; awaken.
To stir, as from a dormant or inactive condition; rouse: wake old animosities.
To make aware of; alert: The shocking revelations finally woke me to the facts of the matter.
To keep a vigil over.
To hold a wake over.
n.
A watch; a vigil.
A watch over the body of a deceased person before burial, sometimes accompanied by festivity. Also called regionally viewing.
wakes(used with a sing. or pl. verb)Chiefly British
A parish festival held annually, often in honor of a patron saint.
An annual vacation.
[Middle English wakien, waken, from Old English wacan, to wake up and wacian, to be awake, keep watch; see weg- in Indo-European roots.]
wak'er n.
Usage Note: The pairs wake, waken and awake, awaken have formed a bewildering array since the Middle English period. All four words have similar meanings, though there are some differences in use. Only wake is used in the sense "to be awake," as in expressions like waking (not wakening) and sleeping, every waking hour.Wake is also more common than waken when used together with up, and awake and awaken never occur in this context: She woke up (rarely wakened up; never awakened up or awoke up). Some writers have suggested that waken should be used only transitively (as in The alarm wakened him) and awaken only intransitively (as in He awakened at dawn), but there is ample literary precedent for usages such as He wakened early and They did not awaken her. In figurative senses awake and awaken are more prevalent: With the governor's defeat the party awoke to the strength of the opposition to its position on abortion. The scent of the gardenias awakened my memory of his unexpected appearance that afternoon years ago.
Regional American dialects vary in the way that certain verbs form their principal parts. Northern dialects seem to favor forms that change the internal vowel in the verb—hence dove for the past tense of dive, and woke for wake: They woke up with a start. Southern dialects, on the other hand, tend to prefer forms that add an -ed to form the past tense and the past participle of these same verbs: The children dived into the swimming hole. The baby waked up early.
"to become awake," O.E. wacan "to become awake," also from wacian "to be or remain awake," both from P.Gmc. *waken (cf. O.S. wakon, O.N. vaka, Dan. vaage, O.Fris. waka, Du. waken, O.H.G. wahhen, Ger. wachen "to be awake," Goth. wakan "to watch"), from PIE base *weg- "to be strong, be lively" (cf. Skt. vajah "force, swiftness, race, prize," vajayati "drives on;" L. vegere, vigere "to be live, be active, quicken," vigil "awake, wakeful," vigor "liveliness, activity"). Causative sense "to rouse from sleep" is attested from c.1300. Phrase wake-up call is attested from 1976, originally a call one received from the hotel desk in the morning.
"state of wakefulness," O.E. -wacu (as in nihtwacu "night watch"), related to watch; and partly from O.N. vaka "vigil, eve before a feast," related to vaka "be awake" (cf. O.H.G. wahta "watch, vigil," M.Du. wachten "to watch, guard;" see wake (v.)). Meaning "a sitting up at night with a corpse" is attested from 1412 (the verb in this sense is recorded from c.1250). The custom largely survived as an Irish activity. Wakeman (c.1200), which survives as a surname, was M.E. for "watchman."
"track left by a moving ship," 1547, perhaps from M.L.G. or M.Du. wake "hole in the ice," from O.N. vok, vaka "hole in the ice," from P.Gmc. *wakwo. The sense perhaps evolved via "track made by a vessel through ice." Perhaps the Eng. word is directly from Scand. Fig. phrase in the wake of "following close behind" is recorded from 1806.
the consequences of an event (especially a catastrophic event); "the aftermath of war"; "in the wake of the accident no one knew how many had been injured" [syn: aftermath]
2.
an island in the western Pacific between Guam and Hawaii [syn: Wake Island]
3.
the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward; "the motorboat's wake capsized the canoe"
4.
a vigil held over a corpse the night before burial; "there's no weeping at an Irish wake"
stop sleeping; "She woke up to the sound of the alarm clock" [syn: wake up] [ant: dope off]
3.
arouse or excite feelings and passions; "The ostentatious way of living of the rich ignites the hatred of the poor"; "The refugees' fate stirred up compassion around the world"; "Wake old feelings of hatred" [syn: inflame]
4.
make aware of; "His words woke us to terrible facts of the situation"
5.
cause to become awake or conscious; "He was roused by the drunken men in the street"; "Please wake me at 6 AM." [syn: awaken] [ant: cause to sleep]
A funeral celebration, common in Ireland, at which the participants stay awake all night keeping watch over the body of the dead person before burial. A wake traditionally involves a good deal of feasting and drinking.
[Chapter:] World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion
Wake Forest, NC (town, FIPS 70540) Location: 35.97057 N, 78.52088 W Population (1990): 5769 (2299 housing units) Area: 12.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 27587
Wake Village, TX (city, FIPS 76096) Location: 33.42333 N, 94.11241 W Population (1990): 4757 (1900 housing units) Area: 4.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 75501
Wake County, NC (county, FIPS 183) Location: 35.78993 N, 78.65042 W Population (1990): 423380 (177146 housing units) Area: 2159.8 sq km (land), 61.1 sq km (water)
A*wake"\, v. t. [imp. Awoke, Awaked; p. p. Awaked; (Obs.) Awaken, Awoken; p. pr. & vb. n. Awaking. The form Awoke is sometimes used as a p. p.] [AS. [=a]w[ae]cnan, v. i. (imp. aw[=o]c), and [=a]wacian, v. i. (imp. awacode). See Awaken, Wake.]1. To rouse from sleep; to wake; to awaken. Where morning's earliest ray . . . awake her. --Tennyson. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us; we perish. --Matt. viii. 25. 2. To rouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupidity., or inaction; to put into action; to give new life to; to stir up; as, to awake the dead; to awake the dormant faculties. I was soon awaked from this disagreeable reverie. --Goldsmith. It way awake my bounty further. --Shak. No sunny gleam awakes the trees. --Keble.
Veg`e*ta*ble\, a. [F. v['e]g['e]table growing, capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable, from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven, invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active, vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E. wake, v. See Vigil, Wake, v.]1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc. Blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold. --Milton. 2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom. Vegetable alkali (Chem.), an alkaloid. Vegetable brimstone. (Bot.) See Vegetable sulphur, below. Vegetable butter (Bot.), a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttifer[ae], also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma). Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris. Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory. Vegetable jelly. See Pectin. Vegetable kingdom. (Nat. Hist.) See the last Phrase, below. Vegetable leather. (a) (Bot.) A shrubby West Indian spurge (Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts. (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather. Vegetable marrow (Bot.), an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long. It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England. It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin. Vegetable oyster (Bot.), the oyster plant. See under Oyster. Vegetable parchment, papyrine. Vegetable sheep (Bot.), a white woolly plant (Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains. Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree (Chorisia speciosa). It us used for various purposes, as for stuffing, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers. Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof. Vegetable sulphur, the fine highly inflammable spores of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch. Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow. Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry. Vegetable kingdom (Nat. Hist.), that primary division of living things which includes all plants. The classes of the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by various botanists. The following is one of the best of the many arrangements of the principal subdivisions. I. Ph[ae]nogamia (called also Phanerogamia). Plants having distinct flowers and true seeds. [ 1. Dicotyledons (called also Exogens). -- Seeds with two or more cotyledons. Stems with the pith, woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged. Divided into two subclasses: Angiosperms, having the woody fiber interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seed contained in a true ovary; Gymnosperms, having few or no ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked. 2. Monocotyledons (called also Endogens). -- Seeds with single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.] II. Cryptogamia. Plants without true flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds, or by simple cell division. [ 1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and o["o]phoric. Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and Cellular Acrogens, or Bryophyta, having the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or educed to a single cell. Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Alg[ae], which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and which live upon air and water, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included alg[ae].] Note: Many botanists divide the Ph[ae]nogamia primarily into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes. Thallogens are variously divided by different writers, and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts are altogether uncertain. For definitions, see these names in the Vocabulary.
Vig"il\, n. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable, Vigor.]1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. "Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months." --Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them. --Addison. 2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other religious exercises. So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned. --Milton. Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate. --Neale (Rhythm of St. Bernard). 3. (Eccl.) (a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a feast. (b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, "To-morrow is St. Crispian." --Shak. (c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding a feast. Vigils, or Watchings, of flowers (Bot.), a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of opening and closing their petals as certain hours of the day. [R.]
Wait\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waited; p. pr. & vb. n. Waiting.] [OE. waiten, OF. waitier, gaitier, to watch, attend, F. guetter to watch, to wait for, fr. OHG. wahta a guard, watch, G. wacht, from OHG. wahh[=e]n to watch, be awake. [root]134. See Wake, v. i.]1. To watch; to observe; to take notice. [Obs.] "But [unless] ye wait well and be privy, I wot right well, I am but dead," quoth she. --Chaucer. 2. To stay or rest in expectation; to stop or remain stationary till the arrival of some person or event; to rest in patience; to stay; not to depart. All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. --Job xiv. 14. They also serve who only stand and wait. --Milton. Haste, my dear father; 't is no time to wait. --Dryden. To wait on or upon. (a) To attend, as a servant; to perform services for; as, to wait on a gentleman; to wait on the table. "Authority and reason on her wait." --Milton. "I must wait on myself, must I?" --Shak. (b) To attend; to go to see; to visit on business or for ceremony. (c) To follow, as a consequence; to await. "That ruin that waits on such a supine temper." --Dr. H. More. (d) To look watchfully at; to follow with the eye; to watch. [R.] "It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye." --Bacon. (e) To attend to; to perform. "Aaron and his sons . . . shall wait on their priest's office." --Num. iii. 10. (f) (Falconry) To fly above its master, waiting till game is sprung; -- said of a hawk. --Encyc. Brit.
Wake\, n. [Originally, an open space of water s?rrounded by ice, and then, the passage cut through ice for a vessel, probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. v["o]k a hole, opening in ice, Sw. vak, Dan. vaage, perhaps akin to E. humid.] The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army. This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. --De Quincey. Several humbler persons . . . formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels. --Thackeray.
Wake\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wakedor Woke (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Waking.] [AS. wacan, wacian; akin to OFries. waka, OS. wak?n, D. waken, G. wachen, OHG. wahh?n, Icel. vaka, Sw. vaken, Dan. vaage, Goth. wakan, v. i., uswakjan, v. t., Skr. v[=a]jay to rouse, to impel. ????. Cf. Vigil, Wait, v. i., Watch, v. i.]1. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep. The father waketh for the daughter. --Ecclus. xlii. 9. Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps. --Milton. I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. --Locke. 2. To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels. --Shak. 3. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up. He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding doxology. --G. Eliot. 4. To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active. Gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now waked. --Milton. Then wake, my soul, to high desires. --Keble.
Wake\, v. t. 1. To rouse from sleep; to awake. The angel . . . came again and waked me. --Zech. iv. 1. 2. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite. "I shall waken all this company." --Chaucer. Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage. --Milton. Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm. --J. R. Green. 3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive. To second life Waked in the renovation of the just. --Milton. 4. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
Wake\, n. 1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. [Obs. or Poetic] Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep. --Shak. Singing her flatteries to my morning wake. --Dryden. 2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil. The warlike wakes continued all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light. --Dryden. The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. --Milton. 3. Specifically: (a) (Ch. of Eng.) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking, often to excess. Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England. --Ld. Berners. And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer. --Drayton. (b) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake." --Cowper. Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, n., 3 (b), above. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Wake\, n. 1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. [Obs. or Poetic] Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep. --Shak. Singing her flatteries to my morning wake. --Dryden. 2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil. The warlike wakes continued all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light. --Dryden. The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. --Milton. 3. Specifically: (a) (Ch. of Eng.) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking, often to excess. Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England. --Ld. Berners. And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer. --Drayton. (b) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake." --Cowper. Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, n., 3 (b), above. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Wak"en\, v. i. [imp. & p. pr. Wakened; p. pr. & vb. n. Wakening.] [OE. waknen, AS. w[ae]cnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.] To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. Early, Turnus wakening with the light. --Dryden.
Watch\ (w[o^]ch), n. [OE. wacche, AS. w[ae]cce, fr. wacian to wake; akin to D. wacht, waak, G. wacht, wache. [root]134. See Wake, v. i. ]1. The act of watching; forbearance of sleep; vigil; wakeful, vigilant, or constantly observant attention; close observation; guard; preservative or preventive vigilance; formerly, a watching or guarding by night. Shepherds keeping watch by night. --Milton. All the long night their mournful watch they keep. --Addison. Note: Watch was formerly distinguished from ward, the former signifying a watching or guarding by night, and the latter a watching, guarding, or protecting by day Hence, they were not unfrequently used together, especially in the phrase to keep watch and ward, to denote continuous and uninterrupted vigilance or protection, or both watching and guarding. This distinction is now rarely recognized, watch being used to signify a watching or guarding both by night and by day, and ward, which is now rarely used, having simply the meaning of guard, or protection, without reference to time. Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward. --Spenser. Ward, guard, or custodia, is chiefly applied to the daytime, in order to apprehend rioters, and robbers on the highway . . . Watch, is properly applicable to the night only, . . . and it begins when ward ends, and ends when that begins. --Blackstone. 2. One who watches, or those who watch; a watchman, or a body of watchmen; a sentry; a guard. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as ye can. --Matt. xxvii. 65. 3. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept. He upbraids Iago, that he made him Brave me upon the watch. --Shak. 4. The period of the night during which a person does duty as a sentinel, or guard; the time from the placing of a sentinel till his relief; hence, a division of the night. I did stand my watch upon the hill. --Shak. Might we but hear . . . Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock Count the night watches to his feathery dames. --Milton. 5. A small timepiece, or chronometer, to be carried about the person, the machinery of which is moved by a spring. Note: Watches are often distinguished by the kind of escapement used, as an anchor watch, a lever watch, a chronometer watch, etc. (see the Note under Escapement, n., 3); also, by the kind of case, as a gold or silver watch, an open-faced watch, a hunting watch, or hunter, etc. 6. (Naut.) (a) An allotted portion of time, usually four hour for standing watch, or being on deck ready for duty. Cf. Dogwatch. (b) That part, usually one half, of the officers and crew, who together attend to the working of a vessel for an allotted time, usually four hours. The watches are designated as the port watch, and the starboard watch. Anchor watch (Naut.), a detail of one or more men who keep watch on deck when a vessel is at anchor. To be on the watch, to be looking steadily for some event. Watch and ward (Law), the charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace. --Wharton. --Burrill. Watch and watch (Naut.), the regular alternation in being on watch and off watch of the two watches into which a ship's crew is commonly divided. Watch barrel, the brass box in a watch, containing the mainspring. Watch bell (Naut.), a bell struck when the half-hour glass is run out, or at the end of each half hour. --Craig. Watch bill (Naut.), a list of the officers and crew of a ship as divided into watches, with their stations. --Totten. Watch case, the case, or outside covering, of a watch; also, a case for holding a watch, or in which it is kept. Watch chain. Same as watch guard, below. Watch clock, a watchman's clock; see under Watchman. Watch fire, a fire lighted at night, as a signal, or for the use of a watch or guard. Watch glass. (a) A concavo-convex glass for covering the face, or dial, of a watch; -- also called watch crystal. (b) (Naut.) A half-hour glass used to measure the time of a watch on deck. Watch guard, a chain or cord by which a watch is attached to the person. Watch gun (Naut.), a gun sometimes fired on shipboard at 8 p. m., when the night watch begins. Watch light, a low-burning lamp used by watchers at night; formerly, a candle having a rush wick. Watch night, The last night of the year; -- so called by the Methodists, Moravians, and others, who observe it by holding religious meetings lasting until after midnight. Watch paper, an old-fashioned ornament for the inside of a watch case, made of paper cut in some fanciful design, as a vase with flowers, etc. Watch tackle (Naut.), a small, handy purchase, consisting of a tailed double block, and a single block with a hook.
Watch\, v. i. [Cf. AS. w[oe]ccan, wacian. [root]134. See Watch, n., Wake, v. i. ]1. To be awake; to be or continue without sleep; to wake; to keep vigil. I have two nights watched with you. --Shak. Couldest thou not watch one hour ? --Mark xiv. 37. 2. To be attentive or vigilant; to give heed; to be on the lookout; to keep guard; to act as sentinel. Take ye heed, watch and pray. --Mark xiii. 33. The Son gave signal high To the bright minister that watched. --Milton. 3. To be expectant; to look with expectation; to wait; to seek opportunity. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. --Ps. cxxx. 6. 4. To remain awake with any one as nurse or attendant; to attend on the sick during the night; as, to watch with a man in a fever. 5. (Naut.) To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place; -- said of a buoy. To watch over, to be cautiously observant of; to inspect, superintend, and guard.